Cuban palm crow

The Cuban palm crow (Corvus minutus) is a relatively small corvid that is endemic to the Caribbean island of Cuba.

Cuban palm crow
In Najasa, Camagüey, Cuba
Conservation status
Endangered  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Passeriformes
Family:	Corvidae
Genus:	Corvus
Species:	C. minutus
Binomial name
Corvus minutus Gundlach, 1852

Taxonomy

The Cuban palm crow was formally described in 1852 under the binomial name Corvus minutus by the German born ornithologist Juan Gundlach.^[2] The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.^[3] The Cuban palm crow was formerly treated as a subspecies of the Hispaniolan palm crow (Corvus palmarum).^[3][4][5]

Despite being sympatric with the Cuban crow (Corvus nasicus) on Cuba, it appears to be more closely related to the fish crow (C. ossifragus) of the East Coast of the United States, as well as two smaller species, the Tamaulipas crow (C. imparatus) and Sinaloa crow (C. sinaloae) of Mexico, than the Cuban crow, which is more related to the white-necked crow (Corvus leucognaphalus) and the Jamaican crow (Corvus jamaicensis), the other two Caribbean corvids. This indicates two distinct arrivals of crows onto the island of Cuba (with the ancestor of the two palm crows being a later arrival), and a resulting niche differentiation, similar to C. leucognaphalus and C. palmarum on Hispaniola.

The following cladogram is based on phylogenetic study of the Corvidae by Knud Jønsson and collaborators that was published in 2012.^[6]

	Hispaniolan palm crow, Corvus palmarum Cuban palm crow, Corvus minutus Fish crow, Corvus ossifragus Sinaloa crow, Corvus sinaloae Tamaulipas crow, Corvus imparatus